SOCHI, Russia — Sometimes an Olympic gold medalist is more survivor than anything else.
Yuzuru Hanyu knows the feeling.
Not only did Hanyu make it difficult on himself, he thought he lost all chance at the title Friday night with a mediocre free skate at the Sochi Olympics. Instead, thanks to the mistakes of Patrick Chan and others, Hanyu became Japan’s first gold medalist in Olympic men’s figure skating.
“Negative feelings were brewing inside of me,” Hanyu said. “It was difficult to keep with the performance with all that in my head.
“I thought the gold medal was not in my hands.”
It wound up there mainly because his nearly four-point lead after the short program was enough to overcome his shortcomings in the long.
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Hanyu fell on his opening jump, a quad salchow, and crashed on his third, a triple flip. That left plenty of room for Canada’s Chan to skate through to the top of the podium, but he made three errors in a watered-down program to finish second.
“I had that chance, and it slipped out of my hands,” Chan said.
Canada has never won the event, either.
Kazakhstan’s Denis Ten, the world silver medalist, won bronze in Sochi.
Few skaters performed close to their peak on a second consecutive night of competition.
“I visualized this evening as one great skate after another,” said Brian Orser, Hanyu’s coach. “It kind of didn’t happen. It was one of those things.”
US speedskating team blames body suits
SOCHI, Russia — The U.S. speedskating team is dumping the suits that were touted as the fastest in the world.
Under Armour’s senior vice president of innovation, Kevin Haley, told The Associated Press that the American team has received permission from the International Skating Union to switch back to its previous suits, starting with the men’s 1,500 meters today.
The U.S. came into the games confidently predicting that its new suits, developed with help from major defense contractor Lockheed Martin, would give it a technological edge.
Instead, the Americans have not finished higher than seventh in the first six events, leading some athletes to grumble that the new suits were actually a hindrance. Some say a vent on the back of the suit, designed to allow heat to escape, was creating a drag on the racers.
The 1,500 starts at 6:30 a.m. but won’t be televised until NBC’s prime-time window that begins at 7 p.m. on Channel 4.
Today’s TV best bets
Men’s ski jumping: Kamil Stoch of Poland overcame a touch of influenza to win the normal hill gold medal last weekend. He’s apparently feeling just fine heading into today’s large hill competition, which can’t be good news for the other 49 jumpers. TV: Taped during NBC’s prime-time window that begins at 7 p.m. on Channel 4.
Women’s alpine skiing-super G: Julia Mancuso and Stacey Cook have an outside shot to medal in a race that would have been a showcase for Lindsey Vonn. Lara Gut of Switzerland has won three of the five World Cup races this season and should be challenged by veteran Maria Hoefl-Riesch. TV: Taped during NBC’s prime-time window.
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